I’m trying to forget you, please let me
You brought your new girlfriend to something that you knew I would likely be participating in. Something you, not only chose not to participate in with me when we were together but bitched at me for going. Imagine my surprise when I walked into my class to find you there with another girl. I had…
Battle royale: Animals in the Nova Scotian art scene
Wildlife rules this week in local art news. But just like in the wild, it’s a dog eat dog world—a brutal struggle of survival of the fittest when it comes to the art world. Winner take all! Do you choose Nancy Rose’s (adorable) squirrel buddies who unwittingly become photographic subjects? (globalnews.ca) or Bonita Hatcher’s “controversial”…
Select Nova Scotia gets a boost
We already thought buying local was an easy choice but now, thanks to a fat funding increase, it’ll be even more so. A $250,000 investment from the province has doubled the yearly funding for Select Nova Scotia, a six-year-old program that promotes the amazing and tasty food products made and grown right here under our…
Listen: Cam Smith’s “Nonsense”
Listen now or save this one for Friday night, Cam Smith’s newest single, “Nonsense” will most certainly get your cubicle sufficiently turnt and have you throwing a tantrum from now until Cannon will be released in its entirety this summer. Booyaka
Congrats to Sobey Art Award longlisters
These lovely longlisters luxuriate with laurels when the 2013 Sobey Art Award—the pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art—announced the 25 artists on their long list. Each year the Sobey Art Award is awarded to an artist age 40 and under, chosen by a curatorial panel, who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery…
Why would you do that?
So a friend of mine business owner asks about getting some work done. I told him I would do it for 10K. So… he goes and gets a couple of outrageous quotes triple my price and then asks me to if I would do the contract. I say “ok. I will hire a couple of…
Don’t muck around with successful Youth Advocate program, says expert Michael Ungar
The first rule of life is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But Halifax council today is being asked to do just that: take one of the most successful crime reduction strategies in the country and muck up its administration, just because. At issue is the Youth Advocate Program. Started with help of a…
Poetry for April and everyday
Since the League of Canadian Poets established National Poetry Month in 1999, April is officially the busiest month for poets. The union of schools, booksellers, literary organizations, publishers, libraries and poets now come together annually to celebrate poetry’s crucial role in Canada’s culture. In Halifax, celebrate all things poetical with a reading at Spring Garden…
Zombie apocalypse!
City Council has been using North Woodside as a free-for-all dumping-ground, for all of society’s problems for decades. (See: young offenders, mental patients, single mothers, and low-income housing). The results are now painfully obvious. Our Royal Bank branch is now a Dollar Store. Our Sobeys is now an empty hole. And the neighbourhood is starting…
Gianna Lauren’s “Ghosts” live at The Coast
The ethereal voice of Gianna Lauren filled our lucky little office during the most elaborate lobby performance yet. Have a listen to “Ghosts” off Lauren’s latest album On Personhood. Related Stories
Wake up wise man
I know, it has been awhile. Back then we were equals, we took our share, we fed our families. Sure we had our differences, you were tall and lanky, great runners.We were shorter, squatter but muscular and tough.You were decent hunters but you didn’t have the chops for the up close and personal. That was…
How is this even possible?
This isn’t a bitch. More of a plea wrapped in a wtf. I have a friend. I love her very much. She is funny, intelligent, cute and interesting. She also smells like a dead body. This is not me introducing a little hyperbole for the sake of an interesting story. My friend actually smells like…
Why the city should spend over $5 million to buy a gravel parking lot
As vacant lots go, the Texpark site at the corner of Granville and Sackville Streets is the epitome of Halifax’s “missing teeth”—an otherwise prime development lot that sits empty, without buildings or even landscaping. A dented and rusting chain-link fence surrounds the gravel lot, which is rented out for parking, but it’s not hard to…
Commuter solidarity and mutual respect
Cars don’t want us on the road, bylaws don’t want us on the sidewalks, there are close to 0 bike lanes, there are huge pot holes and debris everywhere, cars honk at us for going even a little bit away from the curb to avoid such potholes and debris and nobody going down Quinpool towards…
Make it Go can compute
The next time you find yourself preparing to drop your painfully slow or completely busted Macbook from a third-storey window, consult Make it Go Computer (5185 Sackville Street, 444-4225). The new downtown business was born out of Splice, which has decided to go back to its roots and focus on the training and consulting side…
Would you like to go dancing with me?
This love is dancing in the wind like a major league knuckle ball. A very special kind of pitch where the pitcher leaves the path of the ball up to the elements. It travels much slower than a regular picture and the thrower surrenders his control of the ball to wind speed, air temperature, and…
Bicycles on the sidewalk
The government gives a whole meter to drive on each side of the street but someone chooses to drive on the sidewalk. —Me
Creepy crush
I go to your punk shows and sit with my eyes glued to your dexterous fingers, feeding my “look but don’t touch” junior high style crush. Your booming, boyish laugh and undercut drive me nuts, but I have no idea how to talk to you. If you ever want to talk Miyazaki films, drop by…
It’s a quick turnover
If I have to hear another person complain about how small and shitty Halifax and surrounding areas are for meeting “queer significant other type” people – I’m going to implode. Please consider getting the fuck out of the bars and going offline for meeting people. I know, novel concept – but it works. Gays/gayelles are…
Ballet Jörgen’s Swan Lake
There are so many breathtaking moments in Ballet Jörgen’s gorgeous production of Swan Lake that it’s hard to pick a favourite. For sheer beauty, I‘d have to choose the first time the swans are seen en masse (en flock?) filling imaginations with the flutter of white wings. For delightful comedy melded with immense physical prowess,…
Get your personal Coast reporter
Hello, readers. Here’s a chance for you to have a Coast staffer or intern work as your personal reporter. Every week, we have a small feature in the news section called “Municipal Malfunction.” To be honest, we don’t think we’ve achieved everything that’s possible with this feature, and we think, with a little help from…
102 Blues
I’m on the 102 this morning, and there was a slow moving vehicle in the slow lane. So everyone changes over to the fast lane. Dorky, 12 cars in front of me, decides to perform the 10 minute pass. The problem with this? There is only 12 minutes of highway, and 2 of them are…
Dan Savage discusses Rehtaeh Parsons
On his latest podcast, Coast columnist Dan Savage speaks with Slate editor Emily Bazelon on sexting, slut-shaming, bullying and suicide. Listen to the pod cast here.
Hello Stubborn Goat, goodbye G Lounge
The Argyle entertainment district is getting a new gastropub. Hoping to open its doors in early July, the Stubborn Goat Gastropub will be run by food-veterans Joe McGuinness (Durty Nelly’s), Geir Simensen (Saege Bistro), Kyle Drake (Durty Nelly’s) and Ryan Dubois. “We feel we’re going to bring something a little different to Halifax,” says Simensen…
Why did a little girl have to die?
Because this city failed her. My husband and I are both professionals with a lot to offer the place we call home. We always thought it would be Halifax. Not anymore. We’re making plans to move somewhere civilized as soon as we can get transfers and will take our money, spending habits and education somewhere…
Thanks for returning my Driver’s Licence!
My wallet was swiped 7 months ago after a show which sucked. What didn’t suck was you finding my long lost license and driving all the way to my house to drop it off! I wish you had left a number or e-mail so that I could have thanked you. The thief was a dick,…
Lamp posts not the only drunks on the waterfront
Some level of government encased the Pier 21 sign in plastic for 3 months , removed the letters , re-installed them after adding wiring for night lighting all at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $100,000. Then re-installed the circular red/white sign with the maple leaf and words Halifax and Canada at a 45 degree…
Saturday is Record Store Day
April 20, AKA 4/20, is just around the corner—you know what that means…Record Store Day! It’s the one day each year when record-store-owners, musicians and record fanatics alike band together (so-to-speak) to celebrate their passion for great music new and old. Occurring on the third Saturday of April each year, the event has been an…
Another one bites the dust
With very few choices in Indian restaurants in Halifax, the third one in the past 8 months is closing. Last July one on Parkland went out of business. Two months ago, another closed barely lasting a year. And now the other G.I. is closing in two weeks. Either people are not supporting these business and…
Argyle Street is booming
As patio season approaches, restaurant and bar owners along Argyle Street are dealing with continued blasting for excavation of the new convention centre site across the street. Crews have been drilling since January, blasting two or three times a day during business hours, although the city has yet to receive a construction permit for the centre…
Paid to ignore
I’ve waited 8 months to try to get answers. 8 months in pain everyday when I do something my joints hurt, all because of a stupid summer job. I am still fighting to get something and I was sent to you, 8 months ago to find out what my problem is. Not even to get…
Mouth to mouth
Okay, I just…don’t really know what to do about this anymore. You don’t brush your teeth. Not even one 10 second brush once a day, nope, nothing, never. It is disgusting. I have to beg you to brush your teeth, nag you to brush your teeth. I feel like your mother! It is embarrassing. Your…
Get your Greek on
There’s something about the Marquee Ballroom that echoes with debauchery past, an air that makes it the perfect setting for The God That Comes, 2b Theatre’s electric, wine-soaked cabaret/rock-and-roll show. The show is steeped in the wine, song and sex of Greek mythology, with singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman transforming himself into Pentheus, the uptight, sexually-repressed ruler,…
Beautiful English Fellow
The first time I laid eyes on you I had to look away so that I could catch my breath. Then one day you strolled into my life and made my heart sing and it’s still singing a beautiful love song. Thank you for your awesomeness. Your beauty touches people like the words in your…
A hole lot of questions
Q I am uncircumcised, and the opening at the end of my foreskin is not large enough for the head of my penis to pass through. This means my foreskin doesn’t pull back when I get an erection. The internet says this is a condition called “phimosis,” and a lot of medical sites recommend circumcision.…
Ginger & Rosa
Is there a movie where nuclear bombs aren’t a metaphor for personal crisis? Certainly not Ginger & Rosa, the overreaching little film by Sally Porter. Ginger (Elle Fanning) is a redheaded teenager raised by a sorrowful mom and a peace activist dad in 1962 London. As Ginger and her best friend Rosa protest the growing…
Pigeon Gallery flies away
It’s going to be a sad day at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street), come April 20 when Halifax artists and art enthusiasts must bid their beloved Pigeon Gallery adieu (Saturday, April 20, 6-11pm, $5). Since October 2012 The Pigeon Galley has been bringing together members of the Halifax arts community through entertaining evenings…
The Place Beyond The Pines
Lives keep bouncing off each other, every choice threatening those left standing, in the staggering The Place Beyond The Pines. Ryan Gosling offers yet another brilliant performance, this time playing a shade of his character from Drive—a talented motorcyclist filled with violence who begins robbing banks to provide for the infant son he didn’t know…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! Taurus (APRIL 20 – MAY 20) I’m happy to report that help from the invisible world is available to you right now. Of course you won’t be able to use it, let alone tune in to it, if you don’t believe there is any such thing as help from the invisible world. So…
No
“It looks like a Coca-Cola commercial!” one socialist organizer says of the political ad Gael Garcia Bernal has come up with to topple Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet. And why not? Coca-Cola sells. Based on a true story, No tells the tale of the 1988 referendum that gave the people of Chile a simple choice; vote…
Deepak Chopra’s radical shift
Why even bother with Earth Day? It’s been decades since the annual day of ecological awareness was conceived, and the condition of the globe has only seemed to worsen. Climate change is still debated as potentially mythical, the oceans border on collapse, fracking causes drinking water to catch on fire and political leaders remain unresponsive…
Earth Day 2013
Does Deepak Chopra have it right? Do we need to have some sort of personal spiritual enlightenment to save the Earth, or can we just get on it, our souls be damned? We take a look at the woeful state of environmental education in Canada, and then we cry for the planet. Click here to…
Trance
Danny Boyle’s hypnosis heist caper, Trance, crams an overload of the director’s trademark flourishes into a belaboured screenplay until the entire enterprise falls apart. James McAvoy stars as an auctioneer who suffers from a bout of amnesia after crooks attempt to steal a priceless painting. Which is a problem, as the thieves would like to…
In The Land of Birdfishes
In The Land of Birdfishes is an unexpected and intricate debut novel by Nova Scotian writer Rebecca Silver Slayter. Although the story begins with two sisters who are blindfolded by their father after their mother’s suicide, it quickly transitions to decades later. Aileen, who is partially blind, travels to Dawson City, Yukon, where her fully…
Run-run-Runaway
With over two decades under its belt, NSCAD’s Wearable Art Show has established a reputation for being an exceptionally unique experience. In its 23rd year, the annual show promises to keep up its name by combining fashion and art using media-technology, music and interpretive dance. But this year there are going to be some changes,…
Home Run
A substance abuse recovery and Christian-redemption film, Home Run is a yawn of a parable, barely made into a movie. Baseball hotshot Corey Brand is forced to spend his suspension for a DUI coaching a loveable team of misfit kids back in his sleepy hometown. Produced in partnership with both the National Fatherhood Institute and…
Less money for earth
As the federal government shirks its environmental responsibilities, the Nova Scotia environment department is following a poor example when it should be picking up slack: the department cut its budget by five percent last week and eliminated 12 jobs. The estimated budget for 2013-2014 is just shy of $25 million—which constitutes less than 0.3 percent…
Wave
Sometimes tragedy can become a gimmick to sell books, and when reading Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala, I almost wished that were the case. Instead, the memoir is a raw, fragmented story of a woman who lost her two young sons, her husband and her parents, when the massive 2004 tsunami hit Sri Lanka. With one…
Reading between the pipelines
South of the border, American environmentalists are perhaps better organized than ever before, at least around climate change policies. Their most pressing target is the proposed Keystone Pipeline, built by energy giant Enbridge, which would carry diluted bitumen from the Canadian tar sands to refineries in Texas. The bulk of the project consists of reversing…
Good form
These are not your typical toys. Sculpture, which features the work of Heather Benning, Istvan Zsako and Goody-B Wiseman, is a myriad of playful figures. Each artist creates interactive art through the mastery of sculpture to provoke a sense of warmth and curiosity. Benning’s pieces are 3D sculptures with a twist, her dioramas have motion…
Every Little Thing
It’s big news when an avid promoter of Atlantic Canadian fiction releases his sophomore novel. Chad Pelley, who runs the CanLit site Salty Ink, is very aware of the literary landscape in which his book has landed. Every Little Thing indulges in the expected familial tragedy abated with humour and community that has characterized much…
Dam problems
T he economics of the Maritime Link, a 180-kilometre subsea cable delivering Labradorean hydroelectricity from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, have generated intense media scrutiny. The environmental impacts are assumed positive. An online CBC poll asks, “Where do you stand on the Maritime Link plan?” Users can support it because “we need more renewable energy” or…
Standing up for Rehtaeh
From the moment it went viral, Rehtaeh Parsons’ story has lodged itself into the hearts and minds of more than just our own community as these particular stories of bullying, harassment and sexual violence begin to seem common place and we all struggle to understand how many times and ways society can fail this same…
Hot Pink
In this fast-paced, nihilistic American short story collection, Adam Levin explores 10 disturbingly imaginable worlds with a sort of cartoonish realism I’ve never before encountered. We begin with “Frankwittgenstein,” a hilarious, non-stop social commentary about a family whose patriarch becomes obsessed with curing preadolescent anorexia and fritters away his life (and family’s money) fashioning an…
The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions
There’s no doubt that lives are made up of moments mundane and momentous, but for the most part, plays are written about the latter. In The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions, Zuppa Theatre pushes out of that theatrical envelope by telling a simple story in a creatively complicated way. The show relies heavily on projections and sound,…
Get baked
Karen Foster is very picky when it comes to cookies. “I’m easily disappointed,” she says. “When I buy a cookie, I usually look for signs that it’s soft in the middle. If it’s rock-hard the whole way through, I’m not interested.” Imagining that she’s not the only cookie dilettante in the HRM, she and her…
Charli XCX
Bleep-bloop gauze-y pop music about being in love. This record is like the music played at a “cool” party on Gossip Girl. Sometimes CXCX raps, though, and it is the worst. Personally, I listen to “What I Like” first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed so I always have…
Love story
Surrealist and experimental art embraces urges to break rules, any rules and all rules. Wait a minute, what rules? Exactly. For OBEY Convention VI, Divorce Records is bringing aural outsiders to Halifax from June 6 to 9, to showcase the beauty of transgressive music. As prep, the OBEY fundraiser brings back Toronto’s dark-art-rocker Slim Twig…
The Flaming Lips
People tend to listen to music that fits their mood. If you’re happy, you listen to happy music. Sad? Throw on Elliott Smith. And now that The Flaming Lips have released The Terror, we all have something to soundtrack a horrific existential meltdown. The Terror follows in the haunted, proggy footsteps of 2009’s Embryonic, but…
Earth Day 2013
We are facing multiple environmental crises. Above all, we face irreversible climate change, and a cascading series of related human catastrophes— drought in agricultural zones, rising sea levels flooding out cities and entire countries, the loss of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people as glaciers disappear and rivers dry up—if we don’t act quickly.…
Heaven For Real
Did you see those photos of the baby covered in French bulldogs? Heaven For Real’s four twinkling, glorious tracks on its uniquely packaged tapes evoke very different moods, but still somehow manage to all go great with that adorable photoset. Catchy and challenging, this debut collection shows the band stretching the limits of what a…
Graboids and go
If you want to know what to expect from this Saturday’s Graboids album release show, don’t ask—just listen. When the question is put to singer Adrian Bruhm and drummer Michel Ungurain, it’s met with a long silence. When Bruhm eventually offers “Well, I might have a cape.” Ungurain exclaims “Finally!” and they start laughing. It’s…
The Knife
There have been plenty of excellent albums released so far in 2013, but The Knife’s Shaking the Habitual feels like the first really important one. It’s a beast at 94 minutes, with nearly a half-hour devoted to ambient drifting or jittery experimentalism, but what makes the record significant is its activist tone, fearless creativity and percussive…
Nadasi’s one-man army
Charismatic rap artist Nadasi (AKA Nathan Simon) has a work ethic to be impressed by. Nadasi rarely stops promoting, sharing with fans, networking, creating, performing— giving an air of having a highly paid PR staff behind him. But that’s not the case. Nadasi is a one-man army, running a clothing label (WInner’s Circle), working with a…
Turn the lights down low
I have been an avid stargazer since I was a boy. I learned the constellations, observed the Moon and Jupiter in my little telescope, and enjoyed the Milky Way (our galaxy) arcing overhead, with the occasional meteor shower to liven things up. But something has changed over 50 years: the Moon and planets seem OK,…
East coast Outbreak
Take a chance to experience some of the best emerging music on the east coast with Outbreak Halifax—a three-day music event where local bands take the stage at three different locales. Artists include The Belle Comedians, Acres and Acres and Dub Kartel, to name a few, and is organized by the 2013 music business students…
Video of the day: Nicole Ariana feat. XXX CLVR, “Everytime”
Nicole Ariana gives a few lessons on how to be cool in her new video for “Everytime”, featuring Weirdo Click’s XXX CLVR. Tyler Ross from Our Dynasty Our Destiny, videographer to the stars. Ariana will release her upcoming EP, Just Tonight, this July. Download “Everytime” for free right here
Heritage moment
You may have seen the dark, gothic-style posters plastered throughout the city announcing that Swedish metal-rock giants, Opeth, are coming to town. These doomy, romantic-style posters perfectly reflect the feel of this band’s music. Inspired by pioneers of hard-rock like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Opeth weaves together hints of darkness and mysticism with spiritualism…
Oblivion
Tom Cruise does his best WALL-E impression, cleaning up a ravaged Earth while dreaming about love, in the sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion. When aliens invaded 50 years ago, humanity went for a scorched earth approach and nuked their own planet. Now, the survivors live off-world, while engineer Jack Harper (Cruise) stays behind repairing drones and helping…
Rainbows mark the one-year anniversary of Raymond Taavel’s death
Today on Gottingen Street rainbow flags hang proudly from apartment windows while Raymond Taavel posters are plastered to telephone poles and presented brightly in store-front displays. At Grand Parade a rainbow flag flaps at half mass while a single bouquet lies beneath it—all in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of Taavel’s untimely death. On April…
The Disappeared comes home
Lost at sea. Everyone in Nova Scotia knows exactly what those words mean. We’ve seen lives changed by it and families left waiting, desperate for any hope of their loved ones’ safe return. The Disappeared is the story of six men lost at sea, stranded in two lifeboats and their attempt to get back to…
Norma McKnight: Two people at once
“I started ventriloquism when I was 11,” says Norma McKnight. “I was in the hospital and my mom bought me a dummy out of the Sears catalogue.” Soon, the other kids in the ward started gathering around her bed, and a ventriloquist was born. “It wasn’t something I aspired to be; you’d have to be…
The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting?
I’d still let you hit it, but, the last time I got in touch it just kind of fizzled out… So… if you’re into it, come over and I’ll kiss your neck until your worries fall away. —Old Lady
Polyamoury
How I love thee, my eye may float this way or that way, sometimes this way finds someone who is not my way, or that way decides to become the big ol’ stinky monogamus; but there are other times where I get to have loving relations in a fuck rhombus. Times are rocky, but it…
